Pak flag-bearer for CW Games yet to be decided

Our correspondent

KARACHI: Pakistan are yet to decide about its flag-bearer for the 21st Commonwealth (CW) Games which will begin at Gold Coast, Australia, on April 4.

“It will be decided in a couple of days. As per rules we have to pass on the name to the organisers just a couple of days before the opening ceremony,” an official of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) told ‘The News’ on Wednesday.

“There will be a short meeting in Gold Coast and the final name for the purpose will be decided,” the official said.It is expected that the flag-bearer will be from weightlifters who have already reached Queensland. As they have some solid credentials, having won medals at various level in the Commonwealth Championships. The POA will have to dig the name out as there is no big name in the touring party who could be named as flag-brearer for the Games in which Pakistan is fielding an 87-member contingent.

Pakistan is also featuring in hockey event but it is highly unlikely that from there any one will be picked for the purpose because of the credentials of the outfit during the last few years.The flag-bearer could have been picked from the wrestling squad as it carries a big name and the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games gold medallist and world beach champion Mohammad Inam but the team will miss opening ceremony as wrestling party is scheduled to proceed to Gold Coast on April 7. India has already announced that 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist shuttler PV Sindhu would be its flag-bearer for the quadrennial event which will conclude on April 15.

The country’s veteran wrestler Azhar Hussain was the flag-bearer of Pakistan’s contingent in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Azhar had clinched a gold and a silver in 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.In Glasgow Pakistan had lifted three silver and a bronze and all the medallists of the event are not part of the country’s touring party for the 2018 Gold Coast Games.

The country’s prolific boxer Mohammad Waseem, Japan-based judoka Shah Hussan and wrestler Qamar Abbas had claimed silvers in Glasgow while wrestler Azhar Hussain had secured bronze.